Video poker with a tournament feature

ABSTRACT

Each player who is participating in a session of video poker receives, on a periodic basis, a special tournament hand that is displayed on a special tournament bonus screen. The result of the play of each special tournament hand is accrued for each player. At the end of the duration of tournament play, the players with the highest scores receive tournament awards. A player may be required to make an additional wager to be eligible for this tournament play feature. Alternatively, each participant could purchase an overall entry into the tournament or the gaming establishment could award free or partially paid entries into the tournament.

This disclosure relates to electronic video poker games, and more particularly to electronic video poker games in which a tournament feature is incorporated into a standard video poker session.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Traditionally, electronic casino games, such as video poker, slot machines, video keno and the like, have been played on stand alone gaming machine. Each player is seated in front of his own gaming machine and the electronic computer controls necessary to operate and play the gaming machine are contained in each gaming machine.

With the advent of player tracking systems, gaming machines now contain the electronics necessary for the machine's computer controls to communicate with a remote server which can be located on the property of the gaming establishment or can even be located off the gaming establishment's property at a remote location.

Currently, the evolution of electronic gaming machines is toward what is known as “server-based gaming” (SBG) in which all of the operation control of each gaming machine is provided on a server located at a remote location from the gaming machine itself, either on-site or off-site the property of the gaming location.

For example, SBG is explained in U.S. Published Patent Application 20040248642 (Rothschild), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

An advantage of the SBG environment on electronic gaming machines is the possibility of providing communication between two or more electronic gaming machines. The present disclosure allows two or more players, each sitting at his own gaming machine, to participate in a video poker session that also includes a tournament feature. The tournament feature allows two or more players to compete against each other for additional awards in addition to any traditional awards each player wins during his own video poker session.

There are many types of video poker games that can be played on an electronic gaming machine. Traditional video poker is a single player game in which a player plays one poker hand against a pay table, and not against other players' hands or a dealer's hand. The player attempts to achieve final card combinations that are based on poker hand rankings. Typically an initial hand is dealt to the player and the player is allowed to discard unwanted cards and replacement cards are provided for the discarded cards to form a final poker hand. The final poker hand is compared to a pay table to determine winning and losing hands and the player receives a payout based on the amount of his wager for a winning hand.

Multiple hand video poker allows the player to play multiple hands of video poker at the same time. Typically, the player is dealt two or more starting hands with each starting hand having the same cards. The player is allowed to discard unwanted cards and replacement cards are provided for the discarded cards to form the final poker hands. The player may discard the same cards from each starting hand or the player may discard different cards from each starting hand. Each of the final poker hands are compared to a pay table to determine winning and losing hands and the player receives a payout based on the amount of his wager for each winning hand. Typical multiple hand poker games come in three, five, ten, twenty, twenty-five, fifty and one hundred hand poker formats. Multiple hand poker is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,873 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,517,074, the disclosure of each is hereby incorporated by reference.

Flat rate play video poker changes the manner in which rounds of video poker are purchased, with each round of video poker typically comprising the player of one hand of cards. As discussed above, in traditional video poker, a player makes a wager for each round that is played. In flat rate player video poker, a player purchases a fixed number of rounds of video poker. The player then knows how many rounds of video poker the player can play for the amount of money he has invested. Flat rate play video poker is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,163 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,319,127, the disclosure of each is hereby incorporated by reference.

There is a need for allowing any of these forms of video poker to be played in a tournament format in which multiple players can compete against one another. This would add excitement to the play of video poker and provide for larger payouts than can be provided in typical single player versions of video poker.

Slot machine and video poker machine tournaments have been conducted in casinos for some time. The typical tournament is to have each tournament player play a similar slot machine or video poker machine for a designated length of time which can be termed a session of video poker. The player or players with the highest scores at the end of the tournament receive awards in the form of cash or prizes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Each player who is participating in a session of video poker receives, on a periodic basis, a special tournament hand that is displayed on a special tournament bonus screen. The result of the play of each special tournament hand is accrued for each player. At the end of the duration of tournament play, the players with the highest scores receive tournament awards. A player may be required to make an additional wager to be eligible for this tournament play feature. Alternatively, each participant could purchase an overall into the tournament or the gaming establishment could award free or partially paid entries into the tournament.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a flow chart of Version 1 of the method of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 shows a flow chart for Version 2 of the method of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The method of the present disclosure starts with having one or more players participate in a session of traditional video poker which includes tournament bonus rounds of play. Each player can use a video poker machine that is configured to interact with the main computer in a SBG environment. This allows the operation of each video poker machine to be controlled and monitored by the main computer. Alternatively, conventional video poker machines that are linked together in any suitable manner may be used.

Any of the various types of video poker formats may be used for the session of traditional video poker play.

Version 1.

FIG. 1 shows a flow chart for the method of play of Version 1.

Each player who wishes to participate in the method of play starts by playing a session of standard video poker 110 according to the conventional manner of play of video poker. The conventional manner of play of video poker is the game play in which the player receives a starting hand of usually five cards, the player discards unwanted starting cards from each starting hand and replacement cards are displayed for the discarded cards which results in a final poker hand. Typically, a standard deck of fifty-two playing cards is used. Certain cards may be designated as wild cards, such as when the poker format is Deuces Wild, or one or more Jokers may added to the standard deck, such as when a Joker poker format is used. The session of standard video poker may be single hand video poker or any of the various multiple hand video poker games that are known.

During this session of traditional video poker, the opportunity is provided for each player to participate in a tournament feature. Each player may or may not make an extra wager to enter the bonus round tournament. On a periodic regular basis, such as for each predetermined number of hands of standard video poker that a player plays, a tournament bonus screen appears 120. Other periodic bases may be used such as time periods or even random occurrences.

The tournament bonus screen displays to the player one or more tournament starting poker hands. The player plays the tournament starting hands according to the conventional manner of player of video poker. The tournament hand of video poker may be single hand video poker or any of the various multiple hand video poker games that are known. At the end of a tournament hand play, the player achieves one or more final tournament hands 130.

One or more predetermined final poker hands are considered winning card arrangements and the player receives a score for each hand based on the poker hand ranking of the final hand and the amount of credits wagered by the player. The possible poker hand rankings are shown in the pay table associated with the poker game format being used.

The tournament final hand receives a final score 140, usually based on the poker hand ranking of the tournament hand. The final score of each final hand achieved by the player during each tournament bonus round is accrued. At the end of the tournament, each player's final score is compared to the final score of the other players who played in the tournament and the players with high scores are given awards based on their ranking 150.

For example: Peter is playing single hand five coin video poker and makes an extra one coin wager on each hand that he plays. After every fifty hands of standard video poker, Peter is given a tournament bonus screen of One Hundred Play video poker with the initial tournament starting hand being Four to a Royal Flush. Peter plays out this starting hand according to conventional video poker play and Peter achieves fifty final poker hands. Each of these fifty final poker hands receives a final score based on the poker hand ranking of each final hand. These fifty final hand scores are accumulated and Peter's total score on this tournament round is tracked.

When the play of the tournament round is completed, Peter returns to standard video poker play. Eventually, another tournament bonus round will appear after another fifty hands of standard poker. Peter will achieve another final score for that tournament bonus round which will be added to his previous total score. Peter is ranked against the other players based on his accumulated bonus rounds total scores.

At some point the tournament ends and the top ranked players are given awards.

An award pool comprising money or other valuable prizes could be established by the gaming establishment to award to the tournament winners. The player with the highest final score could receive the entire award pool or the awards could be made for finishing in the group with the highest final scores. For example, in a tournament having 1000 participants, awards could be made to the players with the highest fifty scores. In a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the prizes to be awarded are posted at the start of the tournament so that each participant would know how many places are being paid and how high a final score would be needed to receive an award regardless of the final placing of the player in the tournament. Alternatively, a conversion table could be posted so that each player knows what award he would receive for achieving various levels of his final score.

The player may also receive a cash bonus or other prize, such as a free entry into a subsequent tournament, for achieving a final score of at least some threshold level, say 500 points or credits.

Alternatively, Peter's tournament bonus rounds score can be calculated based on the total number of Royal Flushes that Peter achieved. The players with the most Royal Flushes during the tournament receive awards.

Version 2.

FIG. 2 shows a flow chart for the method of play of Version 2.

Each player who wishes to participate in the method of play starts by playing a session of standard video poker 210 according to the conventional manner of play of video poker. During this session of traditional video poker, the opportunity is provided for each player to participate in a tournament hand feature. Each player may or may not make an extra wager to be eligible for the tournament feature. On a regular basis, such as for each predetermined number of hands of video poker that a player plays, a tournament bonus screen appears 220. The tournament bonus screen displays to the player one or more starting tournament poker hands.

In this Version 2, there are separate tournament award pools 230 for different ending hands achieved by the player. Preferably, if a wager is required from the player to play the tournament feature, then a separate wager from the player would be required to be eligible for each of the separate tournament award pools. The player could select which of the tournament award pools the player wishes to enter. For example, there would be a Royal Flush pool, a Straight Flush pool and a Four-of-a-Kind pool. Any suitable ending hand pools could be used.

The player plays the bonus round starting hands according to conventional video poker play so that the player achieves a tournament final hand 240. The tournament final hand receives a final score 250, usually based on the poker hand ranking of the tournament hand. The final score of each final hand achieved by the player during each tournament bonus round are tracked, but are separately tracked for each pool of the tournament. At the end of the tournament, each player's final score is compared to the final score of the other players who played in the tournament and the top ranked players are given awards based on their ranking 260, with each tournament pool making separate awards based on the poker hands used for each tournament pool.

There could be different bonus round tournaments going on at the same time such as Four Aces, Full House, and Royal Flush, and the player may or may not make separate bets to enter into each pool.

The tracking of each player's tournament scores could be done in various ways. One way would be to track each player's ten best final hand results (which could be shown in each player's bonus screen) and rank each player's results against the ten best final hand results of other players. Alternatively, each player's one best result on a single bonus screen would be ranked with other players' one best result.

For example, if Peter achieves ten Royal Flushes while playing a tournament bonus hand of One Hundred Play poker, a bonus screen he might show Peter with a rank of #1 for others to try to beat.

This could also be tied to a progressive which is awarded when a predetermined number of Royal Flushes are hit during the player of a tournament hand bonus screen.

Both Version 1 and Version 2 of the method of play allow players to play regular video poker as well as enter a tournament at the same time.

In either version, a player may be required to make a tournament wager to be eligible for the tournament award. This tournament wager could be a single entry fee for the tournament, a wager made on each video poker hand during a session, a wager made on each tournament hand, or any combination of these. 

1. A method of adding a tournament feature to a session of video poker which is played during the duration of a video poker tournament, comprising: a) a player participates in a session of video poker which includes playing a plurality of video poker hands; b) on a periodic basis, a tournament starting hand is displayed to the player; c) the player plays this starting hand out and achieves a final tournament hand result; d) the result of each final tournament hand is accrued over the session of video poker; d) when the video poker tournament concludes, the player receives a tournament award if the player has a high score.
 2. The method of claim 1 in which the player must make a tournament wager to be eligible for the tournament award. 